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To RepublicansIn reply to some of the letters that defend Republicans and their recent record:. Republicans made the corporate agenda their own...at the expense of the well-being of the people. They ran the economy into a ditch, allowed lobbyists to make the laws, and removed regulations that helped maintain financial stability. The US is broke. When corporations run government, that is the very definition of fascism. Republicans sided with 'free market' growth even though the environment is fast deteriorating as a result. It is clear that the environment will not survive many more years of 'growth'. Western fires burn bright, the arctic is melting, glaciers are disappearing, drought is causing crop failures, desertification spreading, fisheries collapse, biodiversity failing, storms more severe, CO2 emissions are approaching the tipping point, heat waves are forecast to be life threatening, ocean waters raising, the gulf stream at risk, wildlife shrinking, fisheries collapsing, acid rain continuing and those are just the obvious things we know about. Environmental degradation may have abrupt jumps that we can only guess at. The planet is at risk. Your children will pay the price. Republicans, in spite of the environmental warning signs, want to accelerate drilling for more oil so they can burn even more fossil fuel. Get real. Oil production reached its peak and has nowhere to go but down. It is ironic that they are cheering for the Arctic ocean to be navigable so that they can drill for more oil. Don't think those oil prices are going down again, just as the dollar is not going up. Republicans do not recognize economic injustice as an issue. That CEO compensation is obscene (even when their companies are doing badly) is just a symptom of the deep problems of corporate governance. The gap between rich and poor can create a new aristocracy. Walled communities with security guards are springing up in many places and domestic law enforcement is being militarized. Cities have been tending toward lawless ghettos. Republicans placed incompetent, conflicted party loyalists in positions that guaranteed failure. Iran-Contra felons were restored to high office, and they directed the movement to curtail Americans civil liberties. Regulatory agencies rendered toothless by making them servants of industries they were supposed to oversee. Republicans have done nothing to mitigate health care problems. Hospitals built with generations of public contributions have been starved for money so that they had to be privatized just to keep the doors open. US healthcare is the most expensive in the world, but its performance statistics are dismal. While cronies like Bill Frist or Jeb Bush have profited immensely from this, most Americans unfortunate enough to have health problems will find that R's have greatly strengthened bankruptcy laws.
Republicans with their 'War on Drugs' and law-and-order zealots have made the US the world's leader in incarcerations. They have exported harsh US prison techniques to the far corners of the world as they build an empire that aspires to world domination. Disproportionately prisoners are of minority groups that would usually vote Democratic. That makes the wrong-headed war on drugs an election wedge for Republicans. For decades, Republicans have won elections by being racists. They use other wedge issues like immigration as well but, when you think of it, that's also racist. Republicans have been sponsors of human rights abuse, torture, renditions, and some may face criminal charges one day. Republicans have suppressed scientists views and pandered to religious belief. Republicans ignored the fundamental Constitutional assumption to beware concentration of power and allowed media and other corporate entities to consolidate into truly dangerous threats to democracy. US media can no longer be trusted to do the news because it has no commitment to the public interest. Republicans seriously damaged the Constitution by supporting a President who claimed to be above the law, one who can go to war at will, and one who can operate in secrecy so that there is no Congressional oversight. Those checks and balances may be history. The condition of the Bill of Rights is not good either. Republicans pushed for the world's largest military budget. War profiteering is rampant. Huge expenditures for weapons systems like 'star wars' failed to address real threats and assume that the US is the policeman for the world. Elections have been rigged by Republicans. Their integrity is increasingly in doubt. Republicans, to the direct benefit of corporate interests, made war their primary instrument of foreign policy and they have neglected diplomacy. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist, estimated the cost of the Iraq war at 3 trillion. War is profitable, and we have R's promise of endless war. Enjoy. Republicans put the cost of the war on the tab. (Your children will pay.) and they touted tax cuts (for the wealthy) as the solution to our economic problems. How did that work out ? Give them a chance and they will privatize Social Security for the benefit of brokers and banks. Democracy is at risk. The US government, as represented in its budget, is doing just about the opposite of what public opinion polls reflect. This should be news, but it is not. Republicans have thumbed their nose at international law, even though world opinion of the US has fallen. They favor building an empire, even though the drafters of the Constitution avoided foreign entanglements. Historically, the fate of empires is destruction. |